


Meta: The Appeal of True Pacifist Sans

by Gilded_Pleasure



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 04:26:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17338568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gilded_Pleasure/pseuds/Gilded_Pleasure
Summary: Sans Undertale is the kind of chaotic bisexual you meet in the frozen food aisle because he can't quite reach the limited edition Hot Pockets, and you help him out. As he places them in his overfilled basket he winks and tells a corny joke, and for a second you wonder if he's selling you some kind of line until you see the chunks of road salt stuck to his dirty pink house shoes and realize just how long ago he stopped giving a shit. You go back to his place and fuck him on a broken couch, and despite the fact that he's an eldritch horror he's the best you ever had. Afterwards, he shares the Hot Pockets.





	Meta: The Appeal of True Pacifist Sans

Sans Undertale is the kind of chaotic bisexual you meet in the frozen food aisle because he can't quite reach the limited edition Hot Pockets, and you help him out. As he places them in his overfilled basket he winks and tells a corny joke, and for a second you wonder if he's selling you some kind of line until you see the chunks of road salt stuck to his dirty pink house shoes and realize just how long ago he stopped giving a shit. You go back to his place and fuck him on a broken couch, and despite the fact that he's an eldritch horror he's the best you ever had. Afterwards, he shares the Hot Pockets.

The best kind of character for writing fanfiction is usually one painted with simple, broad, and most importantly, _contradicting_ strokes. Mysteries that beg to be extrapolated upon. I think a lot of people have a hard time wrapping their head around the concept of an extroverted person with severe depression. But that's how you end up with comedians, isn't it? It's something we know, but we don't like thinking about too often.

Characterization of Sans tends to go towards extremes, which is understandable considering the flashy difference between playing an Undertale pacifist route versus playing a genocide route. It's why he's so memorable. But the biggest unsung tragedies are hiding in the neutral routes, as are the complexities of some of the characters.

That's where you learn that no matter what, Sans will absolutely _refuse_ to be in charge of anything. No matter who it hurts, even his brother. No matter how bad things get. Yet for some reason, he's the one who knows exactly what happened, and tells you all about it. Even if you're a piece of shit. Even if you murder the only family he has in the world in cold blood, he won't fight you. Everyone will wonder where he disappeared to today, but all he does about it is call you on the phone and tell you to _go to hell_.

A hooded figure watches the commotion from afar.

Sans is just as much of a pacifist as Papyrus, maybe more. Unfortunately for him, he knows a few things that give him a breaking point his brother doesn't have. Maybe he doesn't even really remember; he just _feels_ it. How? Why? Does it matter? Maybe he doesn't like thinking about it too often.

Full disclosure: I don't even go here.

Complicated characters drawn with simple strokes are the best candidates to project on, because you can choose the aspects that you like and build a whole personality onto that to suit. But what if you chose to try and expand every characteristic simultaneously into something very much like a person? What if you tried to imagine what a person like that would find appealing in someone else, and try to build _that_ person?

Well, that's how you end up with an [unwieldy behemoth that has a fair chance of alienating just about anyone](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16913070).

From the outside, we're all just collections of pixels with witty dialogue.

I found myself getting back into Undertale at the start of a serious illness (on top of my usual chronic illness) that I like to think I'm recovering from. Enforced idleness led to writing, and realizing I'd forced myself to forget the names of my ex girlfriend's children despite the fact that I helped raise them because it was too painful to remember led me to writing what I have. No matter how smart you are, with enough trauma and time you too can purposely turn your memory into formless soup. Thanks a lot, Deltarune. :|

I remembered their names eventually, and realized they'd be adults now.

I know better than to think about it more than that, much less do anything about it.

I like to think that Sans is the only person who really understands just how funny Papyrus is, because is there anything funnier than someone who doesn't care whether other people _get_ his jokes or not? How balls-out confident to you have to be to just keep at it, disingenuous as fuck, playing into other people's expectations of who you are and tying them up in knots...and then _using that power to help them?_ Let them think whatever they want about you, because in the end, they're not technically wrong?

The only thing that can defeat Sans is his own hopelessness. His patience is inexhaustible, but to fight a battle he can neither win nor lose for the rest of eternity ends up being beyond even him, if only because he never wanted to fight in the first place. His inherent nature exerts itself eventually, and his last thoughts are to see the people he loves one more time.

But dying is easy. How many times did you turn him into a murderer?

And that's really the shocking aspect, what makes him memorable to so many. It's a moment that never should have existed, a side of him no one was supposed to see. Maybe a side of him that isn't really...him, so much as it is us. Who hasn't felt shattered on the floor, pounded to dust, picked over atom by atom until they found what they want, ate it and left the rest? Sans _already_ has a theme song. And a remix of it with cabasa and vibraphone this time, just to make sure you understand.

"You'd be dead where you stand" is menacing enough, comes so unexpectedly, it's easy to forget he's both Toriel's foil, and _yours_. Because in the end, you really _can't_ save everyone. At the end of Undertale, there always remains one final person you cannot save. How many times will you put them through this until you finally realize the truth? That maybe you have to just accept that, and try to hold what you have, what you love, as close as you can instead of trying to get it perfect?

Can you accept less than perfection?

The next morning, you meet his brother. You get the impression he's been taking care of him for a long time. Sans's face lights up the more Papyrus complains, and you realize he's been taking care of Sans a long time, too. They don't mention any other family, and you don't ask. The spaghetti's terrible, but he says he knows a place. He smiles as he pushes the door open, and absolutely everyone is so happy to see him.

You don't go through his phone, and you don't look in the basement.

Everyone he loves is already right here.


End file.
